This book is very interesting, clearly illustrating Ayn Rand’s
personal economic ideals and values. I would say the first few pages started
off slow, but it quickly picked up when the relationships between the
protagonists, Eddie, Dagny, and Hank. What really interests me is the very
sharp contrast between them and their antagonists.
Eddie
and Dagny have similar values, having a strong sense of capitalism etched in
their personality. They seem to agree with each other during the meeting with
James Taggart. He is clearly the antagonist to Dagny, acting as a foil and demonstrating
the concepts of socialism while Dagny represents pure capitalism. It will be
interesting to see how this struggle between two economic ideologies plays out
over the course of this novel. Rand is clearly siding with the side of
capitalism, portraying Dagny and Hank as hard workers who are limited by the
company they keep. However, I think she overemphasizes the selfishness that is usually
essential for the goal of financial success and lets James actually have a more
convincing argument. Even though he is portrayed as a poor leader of the
company, being treated like a child by his sister, he still has some
philanthropic ideas and sees the bigger picture outside the scope of purely pursuing
financial success. Eddie is on Dagny’s side, but I feel that he may not clearly
belong to one side because of the conversation he recalled in his childhood. He
wants to pursue what is right. Furthermore, Rand emphasized the oak tree on
several occasions. Eddie mentioned that it seemed like it would stand forever before
it was ended. He said the same of the Taggert building.
Hank
is also a capitalist, but unlike Dagny, grew up with constant criticism and had
to work his way up from nothing.
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